FIA GT1 World Championship
Nürburgring
27th – 29th August, 2010
Last weekend the sixth FIA GT1 World Championship race took place at the Nürburgring in Germany. In the previous weeks Swiss Racing Team had continued to work hard to make both NISSAN GT-R’s competitive in order to finally get ahead. The weather conditions at the track were hard and unpredictable for both teams and pilots.
In Q1 Seiji Ara (JPN) did not manage to place his car (#4) in the Top16 to qualify for Q2. The Japanese pilot placed in P17 with three tenth behind, even though he was the second fastest driver in the field, with an average speed of 156 miles/h (251 km/h). Therefore, his partner, Max Nilsson (SWE), did not get a chance to compete.
In Q1, the NISSAN GT-R with starting number 3 was piloted by Karl Wendlinger (AUT) who finished his stint in P9. His partner, Henri Moser (CHE), took over for Q2. Unfortunately, finishing in P14 he did not qualify for Q3 for the last eight cars. Unfortunately, race management revised Wendlinger’s result and he was moved back three places for the qualifying race. According to the race stewards the Austrian pilot crossed a continuous line with all four wheels in the fourth turn.
The qualifying race began in dry conditions. Shortly after the start, Max Nilsson and team MARC VDS’ FORD GT40 touched. His tyre got damaged and he was forced to drive almost an entire lap to the pit with a flat tyre. That was the end of Ara/Nilsson’s race, no more prospect of a good result. However, after the change the Swede reached excellent lap times which were similar to those of the top group. The official pit stop was done without problems and the team changed to wet tyres due to the starting rain. Seiji Ara took over and drove across the finish line in a disappointing 17th place.
Henri Moser had a great start with his GT-R (#3). After the first lap he was already in P11 which he kept until the driver change. After the mandatory pit stops it started to rain. The team agreed with Karl Wendlinger to go back on track with slicks because it only rained in one location of the track. “We pushed our luck and made this decision, even though most teams changed to wet tyres. If we had changed as well, maybe we would have reached P8 or P7. But with the slicks we had a chance to reach P3 or even P2. Unfortunately, it did not work because in the meantime there was more water on the track,” says teammanager Erich Kolb. The result was P14 for Wendlinger/Moser’s car.
Karl Wendlinger had a great start in Sunday’s race and had already pushed forward from P14 to P11 after a few laps. During the pit stop, where the team did an excellent work, Swiss pilot Henri Moser took over the car in P5. After the pit stop phase Moser was in P8 which he lost to Sumo Power’s NISSAN in lap 18. Shortly after, Moser was turned by Westbrock (Ford GT, team Matech) in the Mercedes Arena and therefore lost a few places. Westbrock got a drive-through penalty from race management. In the end he reached the 10th place and scored one World Championship point for the car with starting number 3.
Seiji Ara began the race in the second NISSAN and was able to stand his ground in the middle field. A technical problem during the pit stop delayed it for a few valuable seconds. Max Nilsson got back to the track in P16. However, in lap 22 the engine suddenly stopped as a result of an electronic problem. Nilsson managed to restart the car but had been already passed through to the end of the field at that point. The sister team Sumo Power had already had the same problem with one of their NISSAN’s.
Team manager Erich Kolb: “Unfortunately they still compete very hard. Almost every second car has traces of fights even though during the teammanagers’ meeting it was explicitly pointed out that the stewards would take rigorous steps. Max’ and Seiji’s GT-R is damaged all around and that really is a shame.”
Managing director Othmar Welti: “This weekend we totally reached the pace of the other NISSAN team’s GT-R’s. Occasionally we were even faster. However, we have to say that all four GT-R’s are not really rated ideally in the balance of performance. However, all in all we are happy with our own performance even though we still have to work on getting better in order to bring home more than one World Championship point on the weekend.”
The next race will take place in the Algarve, Portugal on 19th September, 2010.
mr/motioncompany
